Lithium-ion batteries power your smartphone, electric vehicle, and wireless earbuds. However, even the best lithium-ion batteries degrade, forcing us into a never-ending cycle of charging and replacing. But what if a single battery could outlast its device — or even its user?
Scientists are now turning to an unlikely source to power mobile devices: nuclear energy. Not the kind that fuels reactors, but a far smaller, safer version that could fit inside everyday gadgets.
The prototype nuclear battery recently unveiled by researchers in South Korea runs on radiocarbon instead of lithium.
“We can put safe nuclear energy into devices the size of a finger,” says Su-Il In, a materials chemist at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology. He…
